Our Zentragal rework began to take shape last week, whilst more city props were created by the environment art team. Add in a whole host of programming work, and it's safe to say we had a productive week! As always, join us on Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Our 3D Modelling team is working wonders on our Zentragal model rework. This is no simple task however, as the model must go through several iterations before it's complete. So far, work has consisted of updating the legs and abdomen of our skittering spider, while we now look at the finer details of the face and additional flair.
We're now looking at things like facial structure and dentistry, to ensure the model is unique and meets our high standards. Many factors have to be considered at this stage though, which requires attention from the entire team. We have to be conscious of how the players will perceive the model and what customisation options will be available to us down the line. If we overcomplicate things, it could limit our ability to offer unique control to our community when creating a Zentragal.
Set Piece Design
It's been a busy, but familiar week for our Junior Environment Artist, as they continue to work through hundreds of city props which will adorn the interiors of Erendorn's homes and buildings.
Echoing our recent development logs, variety is vital in a fantasy RPG. Being able to tell a story from something as simple as how a house or shop looks, is a powerful tool when it comes to our control of the narrative. We want players to have a memorable experience when they explore Erendorn, and travel off the beaten path to find things they may not expect.
Programming
This week has been spent continuing to get dungeon gameplay back up to speed with the server switch regarding spawning into rooms, the enemy movement filter and enemy target info.
- Dungeons now handle incorrect spawn requests. A bug was preventing players attempting to join a room if they choose an occupied spawn tile.
- Enemy target info is now correctly displayed again, allowing players to strategise and plan their turns around what their opponents are planning.
- Regaining enemy target information in dungeons has re-enabled the ability to hold the 'Movement Filter' key to highlight which tiles enemies are capable of moving to in their next turn.
Server
It's been an interesting week for us working on the server. We've made some good progress, and uncovered some subtle glitches and errors. For example, states weren't correctly counting down, and would wipe each other from existence when one expired. Cleave attacks (think of an attack that hits a sweeping arc in front of you) were not correctly returning the entities they're hitting, and stat changes that had multipliers such as 'restore X health, doubled every turn', were actually multiplying by the inverse of what they should, and twice instead of once.
Finally, there was a more regular fix for simply allowing targeted dashes such as Shift Strike to work correctly, when they were failing to cast in the first place due to the target entity blocking line of sight to the tile behind it that the caster was trying to dash to. Some additional fixes and work included:
- Fixed Solo Killer from infinitely stacking. When combined with the double negative multiplication we just talked about, this caused someone with solo killer to gain 30, then -900, then 2,700, then -81,000 energy every turn, infinitely increasing.
- Fixed settlement instance management.
- Added 'CreationTime' timestamp to combats to allow us to sync client music.
- Added 'GameState' to GameSessions which is used to determine if a session is open for players or not, among other things.
- Added Session joining mechanics to Character Selection.
- Added a minimum number of instances variable to stop the controller shutting them all down after starting.
Environment Art
Last week our Environment Team squashed a few bugs, whilst working heavily on megascans and decorations:
- Fixed issues with engine crashing related to updated Bridge Plugin.
- Introduced lots of Megascans which are now being prepared for populating the world.
- Creating Megascans blend material for compatibility with Landscape Virtual texturing.
- Decorated small beach area to organise Bridge assets.
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Animation
The Animation Team turned their attention to our human model last week, looking at things like updating the mesh and rig. Whilst also updating the main skeleton and considering the use of cloaks:
- Updated bipedal main skeleton: added cloak (tendrils) bones.
- Human mesh update: painted skin weights for base mesh and knight mesh.
- Started to update the human animations (using the updated meshes and rig) getting them ready to be exported into the engine.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of January yet?!
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